Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Swire Properties Ltd. sold a Hong
Kong apartment in a building designed by Frank Gehry for a
record square-foot price, the latest sign the city’s property
market remains immune to government efforts to cool prices.

An unidentified buyer bought the 6,683-square-foot (621-square-meter) unit in Opus Hong Kong in the Peak district for
HK$455 million ($58.7 million), the company said in an e-mailed
statement. The HK$68,083 per-square-foot price is a record for
the city, according to Alnwick Chan, Hong Kong-based executive
director at property broker Knight Frank LLP.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Oct. 26
imposed his toughest efforts yet to curb a growing asset bubble
in the property market, including a tax on non-local buyers.
Home prices in Hong Kong have more than doubled in the last
three years on near-record-low mortgage rates, a lack of new
housing supply and an influx of mainland Chinese buyers.

“Normally these properties have a market of their own,”
said Ringo Lam, director of valuation at broker AG Wilkinson.
“But with the new measures, even they would be affected. I
doubt we will see another transaction like this happening
soon.”

Swire Properties sold the apartment on Oct. 17, before the
latest measures were announced, the South China Morning Post
said today, citing Land Registry records. The previous per-square-foot record of HK$63,999 was set by a duplex at 39
Conduit Road, the paper said. The project at 39 Conduit Road was
developed by Henderson Land Development Co.

Swire Properties in August sold an apartment in Opus Hong
Kong for HK$430 million, the company said. Earlier, it leased
another apartment, which has its own pool, at a monthly rental
of HK$850,000 for three years, it said.

Shares of Swire Properties fell 0.6 percent to HK$23.55 at
the close of trading in Hong Kong, bringing the gain since the
company’s initial public offering in January to 36 percent. The
Hang Seng Index rose 7.6 percent over the same period.